13 Steps you can take to make the game enjoyable

I can understand why people are disappointed with the game (many bugs) and yes even call it unplayable. However after 14 100% career races I have complied a list of tweaks and workarounds which to me solve most of the issues and make it a realistic and enjoyable experience. Hopefully some of these you can try to improve your game as well: Note I am a PC user but some of these apply to all platforms

1. Turn off Vsync: game randomly crashes with it on.
2. Set shadows to High instead of Ultra, this increased my fps from 35 to 55 with no noticeable visual loss.
3. The default cockpit FOV is horrible especially for triple screen, edit the car .xml files to set it lower (30 instead of 48), also I reduced the head shaking effects in this same file.
4. Again for triple screen (eyefinity) intially the OSD/HUD/minimap was stretched to the side monitors- change your resolution to something that is divisible by 3, eg 6060, and the hud becomes centered on the middle screen.
5. There is a bug which disables the slipstream effect if you are using a wheel/pedals. The fix (strange that it is) is to set a deadzone in your brake pedal to 2% or more- viola slipstream now working
6. The default damage is a joke, this is F1 not dodgem cars- install a damage mod or edit the loose_parts.xml file yourself (I suggest values of 1.5) to make your and AI cars more fragile. Changes the game completely for the better and you will also see more AI incidents and more chance of Safety Car and AI retirements
7. Qualify Bug- DO NOT ACCELERATE TIME in Practice or Qualifying otherwise the AI will set slow lap times, play the whole session in realtime to get realistic AI times
8. WET WEATHER BUG!- This was almost a game breaker for me, the AI being way too fast in the wet compared to yourself. The solution- In a wet race you MUST setup your car for wet conditions! Set your wings high (like 10/10), add one click of stiffer springs, adjust gearing. You will now have a competitive car in the wet. I just did a 100% legend AI, no assists race at Monza in the wet- in previous wet races with my default setup the AI were at least 4-5 seconds per lap faster than me in the wet. With a wet setup I had the perfect race at Monza, qualified 9th in the dry and finished 9th in the wet, perfect pace with the AI.
9. On the first lap of a race don't play like a kamakaze and overtake 10 cars in the st corner, it's unrealistic and spoils your experience (with the damage mod on you won't want to anyway). Instead try and be realistic and hold your position or maybe pickup a place or two only.
10. 11/11 BUG! Use this as a difficulty slider! We all know AI are slower/faster at some tracks compared to others. I test my pace in practice and Qualify for each track and adjust the springs slider to make my car faster/slower to match AI to where I think my car should be, ie, close to your team mates pace. With this you can normalise your pace compared to AI for each track and have a far more enjoyable game.
11. Backup your saves- although I have yet to have corrupt saves I backup my save after each race just in case.
12. Tyre bug- there is a bug if during your tyre strategy you have the same type of tyre selected 3 times in a row for your pitstops, eg prime, prime, prime- the 3rd tyre the crew put on will be already worn and useless- the workaround is simply to change the strategy to something like prime, option, prime or any combo where you don't have 3 of the same type in a row.
13. Run at least 50% races, or better yet 100%- Not only will strategy play a bigger role but you get more satisfaction and become a better and more consistent driver.

Now following these 13 rules/tweaks the game is fun for me however there still remains the following bugs which annoy me:
1. AI overtaking- often can't/wont overtake on the straight even when they get a massive run on you.
2. Related to 1- AI hopeless in heavy braking zones- you can easily outbrake/overtake AI from 10 car lengths back and likewise they will never outbrake you to make an overtake- they simply brake far too early fro heavy braking corners.
3. AI DNF's, Real life you on average see 4-5 DNF's per race, in the game 90% of the time there is not a single DNF, is there mechanical failures? This is not realistic.

This is great Plucka. I've had little time to play the game yet, i'm yet to start my Career but these tips will be implemented as they are all great IMO.
...is the AI really that bad?? I thought they were more "intelligent" hehe

5. There is a bug which disables the slipstream effect if you are using a wheel/pedals. The fix (strange that it is) is to set a deadzone in your brake pedal to 2% or more- viola slipstream now working.

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Is this true, how on Earth did you connect the two things together? Im dubious of this claim.

The problem (with both consoles) is that you cannot mod any files. So apart from turning visual effects down you can't do anything but curse CM/Sony/whoever you think is responsible) for bad programming, bad use of hardware or whatever you like.

The problem (with both consoles) is that you cannot mod any files. So apart from turning visual effects down you can't do anything but curse CM/Sony/whoever you think is responsible) for bad programming, bad use of hardware or whatever you like.

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I understand. But why on earth should I have to reprogramme a game to make it better? Thats what people at Codemasters get paid to do. Make the game good.

The PS3 is a games console, yet the version of F12011 is terrible, and better on a computer.

7) You can fast-forward in practice... doesn't really matter if their times are wrong and you're having a laugh if you think I'm going to sit through 4 hours of practice. This point should also be extended to say that you should always use "drive out" and pit normally rather than using "return to garage", as both of these also break it. As do repears for that matter... so avoid breaking your front wing!

8) You need a wet weather setup for wet weather? Are you SERIOUS? That's crazy!

10) I'm a better driver than my teammate . I don't do this... I'll beat the AI where it's too bad and lose to it where it's too good. Much rather fix the AI than adjust myself.

The PS3 is a games console, yet the version of F12011 is terrible, and better on a computer.

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These days you expect things to run better on PCs. PS3s and Xboxs are 5-6 years old now.

Is this true, how on Earth did you connect the two things together? Im dubious of this claim.

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It's 100% true, I didn't find this myself, I read it in another post somewhere. Try it, With brake deadzone set to 0% when you get behind another car there is no slipstream. Set it to 2% and you immediately notice the "dirty air" vibration when behind another car and the speed boost.

7) You can fast-forward in practice... doesn't really matter if their times are wrong and you're having a laugh if you think I'm going to sit through 4 hours of practice. This point should also be extended to say that you should always use "drive out" and pit normally rather than using "return to garage", as both of these also break it. As do repears for that matter... so avoid breaking your front wing!

8) You need a wet weather setup for wet weather? Are you SERIOUS? That's crazy!

10) I'm a better driver than my teammate . I don't do this... I'll beat the AI where it's too bad and lose to it where it's too good. Much rather fix the AI than adjust myself.

These days you expect things to run better on PCs. PS3s and Xboxs are 5-6 years old now.

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I never said you have to sit through 4 hours of practice, but if you want to see realistic AI times in practice you need to at least not fast forward until AI has done some laps. And yes that includes not doing flying laps and returning to garage.

AI is different pace at different tracks so that's why I adjust my speed for a more realistic experience. If you like winning at Monaco in a Williams good for you but for me that is not realistic and no satisfaction. Hopefully some modder will adjust AI pace to be normalised at all tracks but until then I use the 11/11 bug as a difficulty slider.

I never said you have to sit through 4 hours of practice, but if you want to see realistic AI times in practice you need to at least not fast forward until AI has done some laps. And yes that includes not doing flying laps and returning to garage.

AI is different pace at different tracks so that's why I adjust my speed for a more realistic experience. If you like winning at Monaco in a Williams good for you but for me that is not realistic and no satisfaction. Hopefully some modder will adjust AI pace to be normalised at all tracks but until then I use the 11/11 bug as a difficulty slider.

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Great tips in the OP, however I have one question. What is the 11/11 bug and how can you use it as a difficulty slider?